Samsung Galaxy Fold Get started: the first generation of high-definition folding mobile phones

Galaxy Fold is a real mobile phone, I started to experience it – in fact, I tried several. At the press conference on Monday morning, Samsung showed Fold with different color schemes and different expansion states. And more than a month ago, it was still unknown.

As early as eight years ago, Samsung released the conceptual design of a foldable device. At the developer conference at the end of last year, the company finally showed off a real foldable phone . However, at the time, the device was hidden in the darkness, making it impossible to see a real thing. Then, in February of this year, Galaxy Fold appeared on the scene, but we still did not touch the real machine. The same was true of the World Mobile Communications Conference (MWC) a week later. Fold was hidden in the glass showcase by Samsung and looked like a carbonized Han Solo.

Now, Samsung announced that it will accept the reservation from Monday, and expects to officially release Fold on April 26th. Everything is finally settled. But on Monday morning, Samsung showed off Fold’s real machine at a press conference in New York, ready to accept people’s tests. In an hour or so, we started to experience this phone.

Fold is a real mobile phone and will be on sale soon. In addition to these surprises, you will also be impressed with the phone itself. Since the first flexible screen was shown in 2011, Samsung has been using the folding phone to dial us. It is easy to be frustrating for such a long time, and the new shape design is also easy for the first generation to fail. However, Fold is a rigorous device.

In a promotional video a few weeks ago , Samsung has shown us what Fold did when it accepted the folding test. This phone can withstand the folding of the machine 200,000 times, which is far more than the life of the product itself. Moreover, like other Samsung products, Fold also accepted and passed the drop test in both expansion and folding.

Similarly, Samsung’s 8-point battery detection method, established since Note 7, has also been used on Fold. This test is twice as important considering that Fold is equipped with two batteries. Fold’s battery is divided into two, installed in the fuselage on both sides, with a total capacity of 4380 mAh. In the words of Samsung, this is equivalent to “life all day.” Most of the phones were announced by the manufacturers before they were officially released. However, Fold will obviously bring additional ambiguity, because Samsung is not entirely sure how people will use it after getting the phone.

Fold’s folding mechanism works well and gives off a sweet sound when closed, thanks in part to the magnets hidden on the edge of the fuselage. In fact, when you drop the Fold, it attracts the surrounding metal objects. When I held Fold in my hand, I found myself unconsciously repeating and folding it. At this time, it is like an extremely expensive fingertip gyro.

Fold has done a great job in continuing the design language of the Galaxy series. Aside from the strange shape, Fold and S10 and other Samsung phones are really like a family. Metal rounded corners, camera arrays, and Bixby buttons are all in one line on Fold.

The Fold fuselage is divided into two, with two screens each occupying half. When Fold is expanded, the two screens are next to each other with a small gap in between. When the phone is folded, the two screens are separated, each perpendicular to the hinge. This is an elegant solution that uses a series of interlocking gears to ensure that the phone is properly unfolded and folded over its lifetime.

Unsurprisingly, Samsung experimented with a range of different form factors, but they said that for the first generation of folding phones, the current design is the most “intuitive”. Of course, many competing products have taken different plans. Therefore, when more folding phones come out, it will be very interesting to see which solution can win in the industry competition.

After the expansion, Fold is very thin and a little thinner than the iPhone XS. When folded up, it is thicker than the two iPhones, because there is a gap between the two screens. Although the outer edges of the phone are folded together when folded, they form a long isosceles triangle with the hinge, and the more the middle, the larger the gap.

Fold has creases on the screen when it is unfolded, you can notice, but it’s not very obvious. You can notice the presence of creases as your fingers traverse the screen or directly hit the light. This is the daily use of folding phones, we have to adapt.

The Fold’s internal screen measures 7.3 inches. For comparison, the iPad Mini has a screen of 7.9 inches. Therefore, this screen size is small compared to tablets, but it is too big to put in our pockets without folding. Fold’s internal screen is large, which makes the discussion on the screen seem useless. In fact, in order to leave a position for the front camera, the Fold inner screen has a fairly large “slanted bangs” in the upper right corner.

Samsung has been working with Google and some application developers (including WhatsApp and Spotify) to provide a great experience for users when they launch. There are two key points: application continuity and multiple application windows. The so-called application continuity is that you open an application on the external screen, and then continue to use it on the internal screen after expansion, seamlessly switching. The multi-application window means that users can open three applications simultaneously on Fold at a time – in the past few years, this has become the standard configuration for tablets.

Fold’s application continuity and multi-application window experience are smooth, but only limited to those that have been optimized for Fold. Samsung said that optimization is a simple addition, but the speed at which developers adapt is largely dependent on whether Fold can succeed in the market. However, Samsung has a close cooperation with Google/Android, which has made the company a huge boost in the competition.

Huawei’s products highlight some of Fold’s shortcomings, such as a small front screen and a slightly bulky design language. Fold is not perfect, but for a new smartphone paradigm, it is a very solid first attempt. Fold is not cheap, starting at $1980, you basically pay the price of two phones for two screens.

Samsung, Huawei and other companies that explore folding equipment know that at this price point, they are able to sell a limited number of first-generation products. Various manufacturers are still exploring all aspects of folding mobile phones, including the folding mechanism, which basically turns early adopters into mice.

However, although Fold does not make people feel that it has evolved into the final form, its completion is surprisingly high as the first generation.